Recently in IDN Category

As Māori Language Week begins in New Zealand, it is now possible to register .NZ domain names with Macrons. The technology behind these new addresses are so-called Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) which translate the special characters into a computer readable format.

Internationalized Domain Names are available for all second-level .NZ domains available at iWantMyName: .CO.NZ, .NET.NZ, .ORG.NZ, .MAORI.NZ, .GEEK.NZ and .SCHOOL.NZ. The new system makes it also possible to access domains under MĀORI.NZ so you can even enter a web address such as tēnākoe.māori.nz (note the ā in the second-level domain).

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved in the process. This is a significant step for Māori on the internet which began with the introduction of the .MAORI.NZ domain a few years ago. Karaitiana Taiuru, a leading advocate for the multi-lingual internat says that, other milestones for the Māori language over the last 10 years have been the availability of Google, Microsoft Windows and many Open Source projects in Māori.

.NZ IDNs can be registered at an industry-low price of $19.00 USD (if you prefer to register your domains in Kiwi dollars, visit iWantMyName NZ). So if you're based in New Zealand you should buy your Māori domain name today.

Registering a domain name under the official China country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .CN will not get easier anytime soon. Latest news is that the .CN registry has employed 600 workers to manually check all domain registrations for policy violations such as pornographic content and inaccurate records.

Consequently, we have decided not to offer .CN domains as long as any restrictions are in place. However, if China is your destination market, we would like to suggest two alternative solutions: .CN.COM and .ASIA web addresses.

.CN.COM: An unrestricted domain extension for China

The alternative .CN.COM internet extension is managed by CentralNic, the registry for .LA (Laos) and many other popular second-level domain suffixes such as .EU.COM (European Union) or .US.COM (United States). Domains under .CN.COM are completely unrestricted, enabled for Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs), including Chinese character sets, and can be registered by anybody worldwide. This makes it the perfect web address if you do not want a domain name that is heavily regulated.

We have now enabled .CN.COM at iWantMyName with a special introductory offer. All new registrations are only $19.90 USD until the end of April. Please see our domain promotions for further details.

In our next article about .CN domain alternatives we will talk about .ASIA, the new generic top-level domain (gTLD) for the Asian community.

Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) keep on increasing in popularity. After the big news of IDN country code top-level domains and the recent introduction of .NAME domain names with special characters, another domain extension is now opening its namespace to non-Latin alphabets.

As of December 10th it will be possible to officially register IDNs under .EU, the top-level domain for the European Union. With 27 member states and 23 official languages, this is an important step as many countries use these characters in their written language.

Characters include the Swedish å, German Umlauts ä, ö, ü and the Romanian ș letter. But the process doesn't end with the extended Latin alphabet with accents. Both the complete Cyrillic and Greek alphabet will soon be supported as well. See the full character list below:

Latin supplement alphabet

à, á, â, ã, ä, å, æ, ç, è, é, ê, ë, ì, í, î, ï, ð, ñ, ò, ó, ô, õ, ö, ø, ù, ú, û, ü, ý, þ, ÿw

Latin extended alphabet

ā, ă, ą, ć, ĉ, ċ, č, ď, đ, ē, ĕ, ė, ę, ě, ĝ, ğ, ġ, ģ, ĥ, ħ, ĩ, ī, ĭ, į, ı, ĵ, ķ, ĺ, ļ, ľ, ŀ, ł, ń, ņ, ň, ʼn, ŋ, ō, ŏ, ő, œ, ŕ, ŗ, ř, ś, ŝ, š, ť, ŧ, ũ, ū, ŭ, ů, ű, ų, ŵ, ŷ, ź, ż, ž, ș, ț

Greek alphabet

ΐ, ά, έ, ή, ί, ΰ, α, β, γ, δ, ε, ζ, η, θ, ι, κ, λ, μ, ν, ξ, ο, π, ρ, ς, σ, τ, υ, φ, χ, ψ, ω, ϊ, ϋ, ό, ύ, ώ

Greek extended alphabet

ἀ, ἁ, ἂ, ἃ, ἄ, ἅ, ἆ, ἇ, ἐ, ἑ, ἒ, ἓ, ἔ, ἕ, ἠ, ἡ, ἢ, ἣ, ἤ, ἥ, ἦ, ἧ, ἰ, ἱ, ἲ, ἳ, ἴ, ἵ, ἶ, ἷ, ὀ, ὁ, ὂ, ὃ, ὄ, ὅ, ὐ, ὑ, ὒ, ὓ, ὔ, ὕ, ὖ, ὗ, ὠ, ὡ, ὢ, ὣ, ὤ, ὥ, ὦ, ὧ, ὰ, ά, ὲ, έ, ὴ, ή, ὶ, ί, ὸ, ό, ὺ, ύ, ὼ, ώ, ᾀ, ᾁ, ᾂ, ᾃ, ᾄ, ᾅ, ᾆ, ᾇ, ᾐ, ᾑ, ᾒ, ᾓ, ᾔ, ᾕ, ᾖ, ᾗ, ᾠ, ᾡ, ᾢ, ᾣ, ᾤ, ᾥ, ᾦ, ᾧ, ᾰ, ᾱ, ᾲ, ᾳ, ᾴ, ᾶ, ᾷ, ῂ, ῃ, ῄ, ῆ, ῇ, ῐ, ῑ, ῒ, ΐ, ῖ, ῗ, ῠ, ῡ, ῢ, ΰ, ῤ, ῥ, ῦ, ῧ, ῲ, ῳ, ῴ, ῶ, ῷ

Cyrillic alphabet

а, б, в, г, д, е, ж, з, и, й, к, л, м, н, о, п, р, с, т, у, ф, х, ц, ч, ш, щ, ъ, ы, ь, э, ю, я

iWantMyName will be fully enabled for .EU IDN domain registrations in preparation for the launch on December 10th.